Jesse Johnson-USA TODAY Sports
Some major football powers are built upon their ability to monopolize in-state recruiting. Over at SB Nation I have a piece examining Mack Brown’s early moves at UNC to try and build out the Tar Heel football program to be remotely as competitive as their basketball team. It’s pretty obvious that the major impediment to UNC being great at football is the fact that they seem pretty content as a basketball power. The school is very well situated to be better t...
over 6 years ago
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Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports
The zone-read play has come a long ways since it was originally developed as a way to run the ball from the shotgun spread and gave that formation legitimacy in the college game. Once teams realized they could run the option from the shotgun spread and use the spacing of the receivers to create space in the alley, then teams begin to build run-centric systems from the zone-read play.
Like with other major tactics within the spread offense, the zone-read inevit...
over 6 years ago
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Matthew Emmons-USA TODAY Sports
Cutting edge defensive coordinators like Brent Venables have been building their defenses around mobile hybrids that can relocate to wherever offenses try to create space and run/pass conflicts with hybrid tight ends. The defining feature of a given offense tends to be what they do at the inside receiver positions. Everyone plays skill athletes on the perimeter that are aiming to beat cornerbacks 1-on-1 in space when they get the opportunity, even if differ...
over 6 years ago
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Kevin Jairaj-USA TODAY Sports
A reoccurring theme in the NBA playoffs these days is the selective non-guarding of specific players. Ever since the San Antonio Spurs picked on Dwayne Wade in back to back NBA Finals , offensive players that can’t shoot have become a resource for defenses trying to figure out how to stop superstars like Steph Curry, LeBron James, or James Harden with help defense.
Spread out defenses in football have similar options to turn to in order to try and handle th...
over 6 years ago
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Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images
This offseason Gary Patterson has quietly been assembling the staff and players to infuse his program with the one offensive tactic that has always given him fits. The greatest rivalry of the early 2010s in the Big 12 was the one between Gary Patterson’s TCU and Art Briles’ Baylor. It was an annual showdown between the state’s brightest offensive and defensive minds, played out through a pair of private schools largely considered as afterthoughts in th...
over 6 years ago
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Matt Bush-USA TODAY Sports
Kevin Steele broke against type and tried to utilize a few different tricks, including one borrowed from Bill Belichik, to bust up Joe Moorhead’s option offense at Mississippi State. Instead Nick Fitzgerald ran wild and the option guru came out ahead. When Joe Moorhead first arrived at Penn State in 2016 after a nice four-year run at Fordham at the FCS level, the big breakthrough he brought to the Lions was in the vertical passing game. Penn State loved going de...
over 6 years ago
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James Snook-USA TODAY Sports
The Washington Huskies have had their rival’s number over the last few years in the Apple Cup. In 2018 they had a showdown against Mike Leach and Gardner Minshew in the snow and came out ahead once more. The 2018 Apple Cup was often treated as a sort of “that’s what you get for trying to throw all the time, Leach,” game by many commentators. Washington’s DB coach and co-defensive coordinator Jimmy Lake played that angle up with some of his quotes after the gam...
over 6 years ago
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Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports
LSU proved to be one of Florida’s biggest wins for Dan Mullen in year one and made two in a row that he’s put over on defensive guru Dave Aranda. The uniting of Dave Aranda’s defensive mind with LSU back in 2016 was always an intriguing and potentially devastating combo. He’d built a wildly effective defense up in Wisconsin that leaned on man coverage, which figured to translate nicely with LSU’s superior DBs, and then a versatile front built out of sturdy DL ...
over 6 years ago
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